Years ago when I was first learning how to report a story, an
editor shared the journalistic saw that “three anecdotes make a trend.” It’s
kind of a lazy formula, but a lot of people use it. Find three people or events
that illustrate something, come up with some statistic to back it up and voila!
You’ve created a narrative defining modern life.The
reason this formula works is that this is how our brains work too. We have
various theories about the world. Then we look for evidence to back up our
theses.
If we get a reasonable amount of evidence--and three stories sounds
reasonable--we decide we’re in possession of the truth.The
problem is that there are a lot of data points out there. In a world of 7
billion people, you can find anecdotes of just about anything. Choosing to see
different bits of evidence can completely change how you see the world. Indeed,
you can often make yourself much happier and less stressed if you consciously
look for three pieces of alternative evidence.Because
I write about time management, I see this when people decide that “my life is
crazy” and “I’m so busy!” and “I have no time!” If you decide this is your
story, you can certainly find three pieces of evidence in any given week that this
is true.
You stay up until midnight working on two different nights. You have
back-to-back big meetings in different places, your sitter gets sick and your
partner is traveling.Those data points may all be true--and all were true for me the
week I am writing this--but stories can be told lots of ways. Any given week
can produce plenty of other data points, too. In that same 168 hours, I found
time to page through Martha Stewart Living. I spent an hour
chatting in a coffee shop with a new acquaintance, and took a brisk walk
through a wintry woods one afternoon just because I wanted to.This is
not the description of a life that lacks for space.When
you decide to construct a different trend story, and look for different
evidence, life takes on a different hue. It makes you feel more relaxed
about--in my case--working until midnight and then having a toddler scream at
you at 6 a.m. It’s one data point, but no more important than another morning
when you might have woken up, fully rested, before the alarm.What
would happen if you consciously wrote some trend stories about some
counter-intuitive theses? I have plenty of time.
My job is making a difference
in the world. My friends and family love and appreciate me. My guess is that
you could find three anecdotes to support any of those ideas. And the good news
is that the more you start looking for evidence, the more evidence you tend to
find.
The
more evidence you find, the stronger you believe the trend to be. You have a
truth--and it’s certainly a more pleasant truth than the alternative.
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